Enewsletter

Enewsletter • October 20, 2004

News from Vegan Outreach

Adopt a College Passes 40,000
Booklets

Already
this semester, animal advocates taking part
in Vegan Outreach's Adopt
A College program have handed over
40,000 college students a Why Vegan
or similar piece of literature. Last week, Jack
Norris took a short trip to Reno to do some
leafleting and tabling with John Thornberg (pictured
at right tabling at Truckee Meadows Community
College). The tabling was pretty slow, but John
and Jack handed out over 800 Why Vegans
at the University of Nevada at Reno.

Notes from All Over

Having an Impact

Doubt that programs like Adopt a College are
having an impact, or that students are the best
audience? Read
this article!

"According to ARAMARK's recent nationwide
survey completed by over 100,000 college students,
nearly a quarter said finding vegan meals on
campus was important to them. Vegan dishes contain
no meat, fish, poultry or other products derived
from animals such as dairy, eggs or honey.

"As a result, ARAMARK (NYSE:RMK) has added
dozens of vegan menu items as part of the company's
innovative and flexible Just4U(TM) menu program,
available on nearly two dozen ARAMARK-managed
college campuses this fall.

"'Our DiningStyles(TM) research demonstrated
that demand for vegan is especially strong among
college students, as fully 24% of students indicated
that vegan dishes were important to them versus
only 18% for low-carb,' said Ginger Strano,
RD, Director of Nutritional Program Development
for ARAMARK. 'With Just4U(TM) we're able to
customize our menu mix to reflect how students
eat on each campus and offer foods that fit
into their own dining style.'"

"With 1,200 dairy cows standing shoulder
to shoulder in his two vast, white barns, Tom
Frey needs a quarter-million gallons of water
a day to flush out all the manure.

"Critics call them 'factory farms,' warning
that manure can pollute nearby waterways. They
also raise questions about some farmers' routine
use of antibiotics to ward off disease in animals
kept in close quarters, which they say could
reduce the drugs' effectiveness."

From Our Members

When I received my very first copy of Why
Vegan, I showed it to my cousin, and she
instantly became a vegetarian. I had discussed
my vegetarian philosophy with her many times
before this event, but to no effect. Why
Vegan managed to accomplish in a few seconds
that which I previously thought was impossible.
This event was a revelation to me - that there
really was a way to get people to become ethical
vegetarians, and that it was relatively easy.
Prior to this incident, I thought that if I
worked really hard, then over the course of
my entire life, I might be able to convert one
or two people to vegetarianism. These statistics
are hardly a reason to be motivated to do much
of anything. However, thanks to Vegan Outreach,
I probably created several new vegetarians just
with my actions today alone [handing out 273
Why Vegans at the University of North
Florida]. Also, one of the things which constantly
keeps me going is all the people I run into
who tell me that they became a vegetarian or
a vegan because of a pamphlet they received
from me. So, I think that one of the keys to
getting people motivated is demonstrating to
them that their work will not be in vain.-Eugene Khutoryansky, Jacksonville, FL 10/15/04

The Vegan Outreach website is amazing. I've
spent the past two days reading everything on
it. I'm still processing what I've read...the
approach taken is far different then anything
I've read/heard before. I completely agree that
the end often becomes being Vegan as opposed
to Veganism being a means to reduce suffering.
You got me on this one and I want to thank you
for the wake-up call.-DB, 10/17/04

I'm currently playing an Xbox game called
Fable, wherein you play a warrior who
can make choices throughout to be good or evil.
When you lose health in the game, you can eat
various foods to regain health. Some of the
more expected choices are apples, carrots, and
meat. Another option is tofu, which is described
as "vile tasting but undeniably good for
you." Even funnier is that when you eat
the tofu, you gain +5 points on the "good"
scale. There's also a food option called "Crunchy
Chick," with the description, "It's
the bones that make it crunchy." It makes
you more evil if you eat it. I can choose to
make my character vegan and become more virtuous
for doing it!-PM, Rockville, MD, 10/13/04

Vegan Outreach is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the suffering of farmed animals by promoting informed, ethical eating.